












.^''^'-< 











THE 



Falling Flag. 



EVACUATION OF RICHMOND, 

RETREAT AND SURRENDER 

AT 

APPOMATTOX. 



AN OFFICER 


OF THE REAR- 


-aU ARD. 




X>^, 


■ V' ^ 






- - J 








r^o 






NEW YORK : 








E. J. HALE 


1 & SON, PUBLISHEKS, 






MURRAY STREET. 










1874. 










cH7 

.67 



Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1874, oy 

E. J. HALE & SON, 
the Office of the Librarian of Congress at Washington. 



I \ 



DEDICATION. 



TO THE OFFICERS AND MEN OF THE 



7th: Sauth ©amlma l^atralrtj; 



SHORT ACCOUNT OF AN INTERESTING PERIOD IN THEIR 
MILITARY HISTORY, 

AND THAT OF 

THE CAUSE THEY LOVED SO WELL, AND FOR WHICH THEY 
FOUGHT SO FAITHFULLY, 

BY ONE WHO CONSIDERS HAVING BEEN THEIR COMRADE THE 
PROUDEST RECOLLECTION OF HIS LIFE. 



PREFACE. 



THE writer only attemj)ts to give some account of 
what occurred witliin his own observation -, he 
would have esteemed it a privilege to enter into all 
the detail that lights up the last desperate struggle, 
made by that glorious remnant of the Army of 
IsTorthern Virginia, with its skeleton battalions from 
every Southern State; illustrating their own fame 
and that of their noble leader, mile by mile, on that 
weary march from Eichmond to Appomattox. 

But he has confined himself to his own experi- 
ences, and in a great measure to what hapi^ened to 
his own Brigade, because it was written out, imme- (/ 
diately after the war, from that standpoint. - And if 
there be any merit in it, it is simply as a journal — 
what one man saw, and the impression produced 
thereby. This, even within a limited range, if truly 
put, represents at least a phase of the last act in the 
bloody drama that had been enacting for four years. 
More than this he could not hope to do, but leaves 
to abler hands the greater task that swells the cur- 
rent of events into the full tide of history. 
Camden, South Oakolina, 
June 15th, 1874. 



EVACUATION OF RICHMOND, 1865. 



On Saturday, the 1st day of April, 1865, orders 
Teaclied us at camp headquarters of the Seventh 
South Carohna Cavalry, Grary's Brigade, to send for- 
ivard all the dismounted men of the regiment to re- 
port to Lt. Col. Barham, Twenty-fourth Kegiment 
Yirginia Cavalry, in command of dismounted men of 
the brigade, for duty on the lines. Began to think 
that a move was intended of some sort, but on the 
brink, as all knew and felt for some time, of great 
events, it was difficult to say what was expected. On 
Sunday, the 2d, about mid-day, orders came for the 
wagon train of the brigade, spare horses, baggage of 
all sorts, that was to go at all — the greater part was to 
be left — ^to move into Richmond at once, and fall into 
the general train of the army of the north bank of 
the James Eiver. Richmond then was to be evac- 
uated, so all felt, though no public statement of the 
fact had been made ; heavy fighting had been going 
on during the day, in the neighborhood of Petersburg, 
but there had been one unceasing roar of battle 
around us for months, and no particular account was 
taken of that. 

The brigade was ordered to move after nightfall 
from its position (our winter quarters) between the 



8 THE FALLIXG FLAG. 

Williamsburg and tlie " Nine Mile " road, about four 
miles from Kichmond, and immediately beliind tlie 
outer line of works on the edge of the battle field of 
the " Seven Pines." 

We moved after dark — the Seventh Sou.th Carolina, 
Col. Haskell ; the Hampton Legion, South Carolina, 
Lieut. Col. Arnold ; the Twenty-fourth Virginia, Coh 
Robbins, and a small party of the Seventh Greorgia, 
part of a company only — Gren. Gary commanding the 
brigade. 

The Seventh Georgia were, with the exception 
spoken of, dismounted, though belonging to our 
brigade. We halted on the Charles City road, found 
all the infantry gone ; Gen. Longstreet, who com- 
manded on the north bank, had been withdra^m with 
Gen. Field's Division across the river, to reinforce 
Gen. Lee around Petersburg, some two or three days- 
before, leaving only the Division of Gen. Kershaw 
in our immediate neighborhood, and Gen. Custis Lee 
in command of the Marine Brigade and City Eeserves, 
next the river, near Fort Gilmer, all under the com- 
mand of Lt. Gen. Ewell ; also Hankin's Batteiy, Yir- 
ginia, attached to our brigade. 

We were to wait until two o'clock, and as soon as 
our dismounted men, who were filling the place of 
infantry pickets withdrawn, should come in, we were 
to move on to the city, acting as " rear guard," and 
burn Mayo's Bridge. It was all out now ; there had 
been a heavy fight in the morning, near Petersburg, 
Gen. Lee all but overwhelmed. Gen. A. P. Hill killed^ 



THE FALLING FLAG. 9 

and the army in full retreat on Burkville, to effect, if 
possible, a junction with Gren. Johnston, in ISTorth 
Carolina. 

We built big fires of brush wood, to give light and 
warmth, and deceive the enemy. It was cold, though 
in April ; the men, as usual, light-hearted and cheerful 
round the fires, though an empire was passing away 
around them ; some, with an innate consciousness of • 
the work before them, when they heard that the halt 
was to be for two or three hours, wrapped in their 
overcoats, with the capes drawn over their heads, 
were soon sound asleep, forgetting the defeat of ar- 
mies, the work of yesterday, the toil and danger of 
to-morrow, in some quiet dream of a home perhaps 
never seen again. 

Two o'clock came and passed ; our men had not 
come in. The General waited until four o'clock. 
I think we were at this point six miles from Eich- 
mond. We should have been there at daylight, and 
we were to burn the bridge in time to prevent the 
enemy's crossing, as our whole train-, with infantry 
and artillery, had crossed during the night. Our 
brigade of cavalry, and one company of artillery at- 
tached to it, were all that were on this side — the north 
bank of the river. We could wait no longer, and 
moved off slowly. In a short time after we started a 
tremendous explosion took place toward the river, 
lighting up everything like day, and waking every 
echo, and every Yankee for thirty miles around. It 
was evidently a gunboat on the river at " Drury's 



ID THE FALLING FLAG. 

Bluff." Two otliers followed, but they did not equal 
the first. She was iron-clad — ^the " Virginia," as we 
afterwards heard — just completed. She burst like a 
bomb-shell, and told, in anj^thing but a whisper, the 
desperate condition of things. There was no time to 
be lost; the Yankees had heard it as well as our- 
selves, and we moved on at once. 

We overtook, just at daylight, and passed a small 
squad of our dismounted men from the Seventh, who 
had got in from the picket line. When we reached 
the intermediate line of works, where the '^ Charles 
City " and " l^ew Kent " roads come together, not far 
from the "turnpike gate," which all who travelled 
that road — and who of the army of Northern Yirginia 
did not? — will remember, the sun was just rising, and 
an ugly red glare showed itself in the direction of 
Richmond that dimmed the early sunshine. 

At this point the Greneral determined (though ex- 
pecting the enemy's cavalry every moment) to occupy 
the works, and wait for the dismounted men. The 
guns of the battery that accompanied us were placed 
in position, and our men dismounted and occupied 
the lines on the right and left of the road. In about 
a half hour's time, and to our great satisfaction — for it 
seemed a hard case to leave the poor tired fellows to 
be gobbled up — a straggling line of tired men and 
poor walkers, as dismounted cavalry always must be in 
their big boots and spurs, showed themselves over the 
hill, dragged themselves along, and passed on before 
us into the city. We followed on, went down the 



THE FALLING FLAG. 11 

steep hill by the house where Greneral Johnston's 
headquarters were about the time of the retreat from 
Yorktown, and got into the river road, and so had 
"the enemy behind us. It was here he might have 
€ut us off from the city and secured the bridge. 

We passed into the "Eockets," the southern suburb 
of Kichmond, at an easy marching gait, and there 
learned that the bridge had taken fire from some of 
the buildings, which by this time we could see were 
on fire in the city. Fearing our retreat would be cut 
ofi at that point, which would throw us from our 
position as rear guard, we pushed on rapidly, the 
€olumn moving at a trot through the " Eockets." 

The peculiar population of that suburb were gath- 
ered on the sidewalk ; bold, dirty looking women, who 
had evidently not been improved by four years' mili- 
tary association, dirtier (if possible) looking children, 
and here and there skulking, scoundrelly looking men, 
v^ho in the general ruin were sneaking from the holes 
they had been hiding in — not, though, in the numbers 
that might have been expected, for the great crowd, 
as we soon saw, were hard at it, pillaging the burn- 
ing city. One strapping virago stood on the edge of 
the pavement with her arms akimbo, looking at us 
with intense scorn as we swept along ; I could have 
touched her with the toe of my boot as I rode by her, 
closing the rear of the column ; she caught my eye — 
" Yes," said she, with all of Tipperary in her brogue, 
^'afther fighting them for four jesiYS ye're running 
like dawgs !" The woman was either drunk or very 



12 THE FALLI^^G FLAG. 

mncli in earnest, for I give lier credit for feeling alt 
she said, and her son or husband had to do his own 
fighting, I will answer for it, wherever he was, or get 
no kiss or comfort from her. But I could not stop to 
explain that Greneral Longstreet's particular orders 
were not to make a fight in the city, if it could be 
avoided, so I left her to the enjoyment of her own 
notions, unfavorable as they evidently were to us. 

On we went across the creek, leaving a picket at 
that point to keep a lookout for the enemy, that we 
knew must now be near upon our heels. It was after 
seven o'clock, the sun having been up for some time. 
Afte]^ getting into Main street and passing the two to- 
bacco warehouses opposite one another, occupied as 
prisons in the early years of the war, we met the 
motley crowd thronging the pavement, loaded with 
every species of plunder. 

Bare-headed women, their arms filled with every 
description of goods, plundered from warehouses and 
shojjs, their hair hanging abou.t their ears, were rush- 
ing one way to deposit their plunder and return for 
more, while a current of the empty-handed surged in 
a contrary direction towards the scene. 

The roaring and crackling of the burning houses^ 
the trampling and snorting of our horses over the 
paved sti-eets as we swept along, wild sounds of every 
description, while the rising sun came dimly through 
the cloud of smoke that hung like a pall around him, 
made up a scene that beggars description, and which 
I hope never to see again — the saddest of many of 



THE PALLING FLAG. IB 

the sad sights of war — a city undergoing pillage at the 
hands of its own mob, while the standards of an em- 
pire were being taken from its capitol, and the tramp 
of a victorious enemy could be heard at its gates. 

Eichmond had collected within its walls the refuse 
of the war — thieves and deserters, male and female, 
the vilest of the vile were there, but strict military 
discipline had kept it down. Now, in one moment, 
it was all removed — all restraint was taken off — and 
you may imagine the consequences. There were said 
to be 6,000 deserters in the city, and you could see 
the grey jackets here and there sprinkled in the mob 
that was roaring down the street. When we reached 
somewhere between Twentieth and Twenty-fifth 
streets — I will not be certain — the flames swept 
across Main street so we could not pass. The column 
turned to the right, and so got into the street above 
it. On this (Franklin street) are many private resi- 
dences; at the windows we could see the sad and 
tearful faces of the kind Virginia women, who had 
never failed the soldier in four long years of war 
and trouble, ready to the last to give him devoted 
attendance in his wounds and sickness, and to share 
with his "Decessities the last morsel. 

These are strong but not exaggerated expressions- 
Thousands, yes, tens of thousands, from the Rio 
Grande to the Potomac, can bear witness to the truth 
of everything I say. And it was a sad thought to 
every man that was there that day, that we seemed, 
as a compensation for all that they had done for us, to 



14 THE FALLING FLAG. 

be leaving them to the mercj of the enemy ; but their 
own Greneral Lee was gone before, and we were but 
^s the last wave of the receding tide. 

After getting round the burning square we turned 
back towards the river. The portion of Mayo's, or 
rather the lesser bridge that crossed the canal, 
had taken fire from the laro'e flourino^ mill near 
it, and was burning, but not the main bridge ; so 
we followed the cross street below the main ap- 
proach to the bridge, at the foot of which was a 
bridge across the canal, forcing our horses through 
the crowd of pillagers gathered at this point, greater 
than at any other — they had broken into some 
government stores. A low white man — ^lie seemed a 
foreigner — was about to strike a woman over a barrel 
of flour under my horse's nose, when a stout negro 
took her part and threatened to throw him into the 
canal. We were the rear regiment at this time. All 
this occurred at one of those momentary halts to 
which the rear of a marching column is subjected; in 
another moment we moved on, the croAvd closed in, 
and we saw^ no more. After crossing the canal we 
were obliged to go over a stone conduit single file. 

At last we were on the main bridge, along wlfich 
were scattered faggots to facilitate the burning. Lieut. 
Cantey, Sergt. Lee and twenty men from the Seventh 
were left, under the supervision of Colonel Haskell, 
to burn the bridge, while the rest went slowly up the 
hill on which Manchester is built, and waited for 
them. Just as the canal bridge on which w'e had 



THE FALLING FLAG. 15 

crossed took fire, about forty of Kautz' cavalry gal- 
loped easily np Main street, fired a long shot with 
their carbines on the party at the bridge, but went on 
up the street instead of coming down to the river. 
They were too late to secure the bridge, if that had 
been their object, which they seemed to be aware of^ 
as they made no attempt to do so. Their coming 
was of service to the city. General Ord, as we after- 
wards understood, acted with promptness and kind- 
ness, put down the mob, and put out the fire, and 
protected the people of Eichmond from the mob and 
his own soldiers, in their persons and property. 

As we sat upon our horses on the high hill on 
which Manchester is built, we looked down upon the 
City of Eichmond. By this time the fire appeared to 
be general. Some magazine or depot for the manu- 
facture of ordnance stores was on fire about the cen- 
tre of the city ; it was marked by the peculiar black- 
ness of smoke; from the middle of it would come 
the roar of bursting shells and boxes of fixed ammu- 
nition, with flashes that gave it the appearance of a 
thunder cloud of huge proportions with lightning 
pla3n.ng through it. On our right was the navy yard, 
at which were several steamers and gunboats on fire, 
and burning in the river, from which the cannon 
were thundering as the fire reached them. The old 
war-scarred city seemed to prefer annihilation to con- 
quest — a useless sacrifice, as it afterwards proved, 
however much it may have added to the grandeur of 
the closing scene ; but such is war. 



16 THE FALLING FLAG. 

Moving slowly out of Mancliester, we soon got 
among the liost of stragglers, who, from a natural 
fear of the occupation of the towns both of Peters- 
burg and Eichmond, were going with the rear of our 
army. Civilians, in some cases ladies of gentle nur^ 
ture, without means of conveyance, were sitting on 
their trunks by the roadside — refugees from Peters- 
burg to Eichmond a few days before, now refugees 
from Eichmond into the highway ; indeed the most 
were from Petersburg, driven out literally by the 
-artillery fire. The residents of Eichmond, as a gen- 
eral thing, remained. 

Two ladies here got into our regimental ambulance, 
rode for a few miles, and then took refuge in some 
iarm house, I suj^pose, as they disappeared before the 
day was over. 

By the roadside, or rather the sidewalk, were sit- 
ting on their bags some hardy, weather-beaten look- 
ing men. They were what was left of the crew of 
the " famous Alabama," and had just landed from the 
gunboats that had been blown up on the river, which 
had first started us on our march. Admiral Semmes 
was with them ; I remember some of our young men 
jesting with the bronzed veterans, but we did not then 
know the renowned Captain of the great Confederate 
war ship was there in person, or he certainly should 
not have had to complain of being left standing in 
the road and dusted by the "young rascals of the 
cavalry rear-guard," as he does in his book. Some 
one of the "young cavalry rascals" would have, been 



THE FALLING FLAG. 17. 

"dismounted, and liis liorse given to tlie man wlio Taad 
carried our flag so far and fonght it so well. 

Acting as rear-guard, we moved very slowly, giv- 
ing time for all stragglers, wagons and worn out artil- 
lery horses to close up. Already we began to come 
upon a piece of artillery mired down, tlie horses dead 
beat, the gun left, and the horses double-teamed into 
the remaining pieces. So we went into camp that 
night, after marching all day, only eleven miles from 
Eichmond, on the "Burkville road." Burkville is the 
point at which the railroad branches west to Lynch- 
burg and south to Danville, and was our objective 
point. 

The brigade went into camp, or bivouac rather, by 
: squadrons, in a piece of woods, the men picketing 
their horses immediately behind their camp fires. 
The fires burned brightly, the horses ate the corn the 
men had brou.ght in their bags and what forage they 
could get hold of during the day. Our surgeon, Dr. 
McLaurin, had gotten up his ambulance, and helped 
out our bread and bacon with a cup of coffee and 
some not very salt James River herring, that he had 
among his stores — and so ended the first day's march. 

We did not move until nearly nine o'clock next 
morning, as at our slowest marching gait we out-trav- 
elled the march we were covering. The day was 
spent in following after the movements of the army. 
Occasional pieces of artillery left u.pon the roadside 
showed that the horses were giving out. After dark 
we crossed the Appomattox, some twenty or twenty- 



18 THE FALLING FLAG. 

five miles from Eichmoiid, at tlie railroad bridge, 
wHcli was planked over so onr horses could cross. 
After crossing tlie river we went into camp about a 
mile beyond, surrounded by most of the infantry of 
the north bank, General Longstreet's immediate com- 
mand, the men leading their horses over. One of the 
young men attached to our mess, a good looking 
young fellow, had his pockets filled with ham and 
biscuits near the crossing by some good Samaritan he 
had met, and so our herring, grilled by one of the 
couriers on the half of a canteen, was helped out by 
this addition. 

We were suddenly roused in the night by a fire in 
the dry grass on which we were sleeping. It caught 
from our camp fire and was among our blankets before 
we knew it. There was a general jumping up and 
stamping it out. One of the men created quite a sen- 
sation by shaking his India rubber, which was on fire ; 
it flew to pieces in a shower of flame. The efiect of 
the night attack is still shown in the blistered and 
scorched condition of my field-glasses. We were at 
this point but a few miles from Amelia Court House, 
between which and our camp of that night the road 
from Petersburg joins the road from Richmond, and 
the two columns respectively met — the two streams 
flowed into one — forming what was left of Lee's gi'eat 
army of Northern Virginia — the men exchanging in 
the fresh morning air kindly greetings with one an 
other, from Texas to Marjdand, from the Potomac 
to the Rio Grande. They marched along, leaving 



' THE FALLING FLAG. 19 

their fate in the hands of the gi-eat leader they knew 
so well and had trusted so long. 

About a mile or two from Amelia Court House 
our brigade was ordered to graze their horses in a 
clover field, still keeping the regiments together as 
near as could be in squadrons, for we could make no 
calculations, as will be seen, upon the movements of 
the enemy's cavalry. Colonel Haskell, Colonel Eob- 
bins, of the Twenty-fourth Virginia, and myself were 
seated upon the steps of an old house, breakfasting 
with Colonel Kobbins, who had been fortunate 
enough to meet a friend who had filled his haver- 
sack, and shared his good luck with us, watching the 
men and horses who were eating what they could 
get, when here it came at last : " Mount the brigade 
and move up at once!" The enemy had gotten in 
force between us and Burkville, and his cavalry had 
struck our wagon and ordnance train some three or 
four miles from where we were. So there was mount- 
ing in hot haste, and off we went at a gallop. 

We soon reached the point they had first attacked 
and set fire to the wagons — the canvas covers taking 
fire very easily. Their plan of operation seemed to 
be to strike the train, which was several miles long 
at a given point, fire as many wagons as their number 
admitted of doing at once, then making a circuit and 
striking it again, leaving an intermediate point un- 
touched. 

We did not suppose the troops actually engaged in 
the firing exceeded three or four hundred well mount- 



20 " THE FALLING FLAG. 

ed men, but liad a large body of cavalry moving par- 
allel with, them in easy supporting distance. This was 
a very effectual mode of throwing the march of the 
wagon train into confusion, independent of the abso- 
lute destruction they caiised. 

The burning caissons, as we rode by, were anything 
but pleasant neighbors, and were exploding right and 
left, but I do not recollect of any of our men being 
hit by them. 

We could hear the enemy ahead of us, as we 
pressed our tired horses through the burning wagons 
and the scattered plunder which, filled the road, giv- 
ing our own wagon-rats and skulkers a fine harvest 
of plunder. Many of the wagons were untouched, 
but standing in the road without liorses, the teamsters 
at the first alarm taking them out and making for the 
woods, coming back and taking their wagons again 
after the stampede was over, sometimes to find tliem 
plundered by our own cowardly skulkers, that I sup- 
pose belong to all armies. I have no doubt Csesar 
had them in his tenth legion, and Xenophon in his 
famous ten thousand. 

So far the enemy, m carrjang out his plan of at- 
tack, had kept in motion ; but after passing a large 
creek that crosses the road and runs on by "Amelia 
Springs," the}^ halted at an old field on the side of 
the road and made a front. As the head of our col- 
umn crossed the creek a lady was standing in the 
mud by the road side with a soldier in a "gTcy 
jacket." She had been with the ordnance train — the 



THE FALLING FLAG. 21 

ambulance in wMcli she had been riding was taken, 
the horses carried off, and as we closed np she was 
left as we found her. She was from Mississippi, and 
had left Eichmond with her friends in the "Artillery," 
and was much more mad than scared, and she stood 
there in the mud (she was young and pretty) and 
gesticulated as she told her story, making up a pic- 
ture striking and peculiar. There was no time to 
listen, but promising to do our best to punish the ag- 
gressors, who had taken her up and dropped her so 
unceremoniously in the mud, which was the amount 
•of the damage, and advising her to take shelter in a 
large white house on the hill, we moved on to meet 
the party ahead, who, near enough their reserve now 
for support, had halted to give us a taste of their 
quality. 

At first they called out to come on and get their 
"greenbacks," seeing the small party in advance 
with the Greneral, but as the regiments rode into the 
field, which was large enough to make a display of 
the entire line, they stood but to exchange a scatter- 
ing fire, and then moved in retreat along a road run- 
ning parallel to the main road and leading to "Amelia 
Springs.'' The Seventh, from position, was the lead- 
ing regiment, and moved at a gallop in pursuit The 
road swept round a point of wood on the left and an 
old field on the right grown up with pine. In ad- 
vance rode five well mounted men of the regiment, 
as a lookout, led by the adjutant — General Gary im- 
mediately behind them — and the head of our column. 



22 THE FALLING FLAG. 

the Seventh cavalry, next As the advance guard 
rounded the bend in the road it was swept by the 
fire of the enemy, who had halted for that purpose, 
wheeling instantly in retreat as soon as they delivered 
their fire. Four men out of the five, all except the 
adjutant, were hit, one of them in the spine, "Mills," 
an approved scout, and one of the best and bravest 
men in the army. Throwing his arms over his head 
with a yell of agony, wrung from him by intense 
|)ain, he pitched backwards off his horse, which was 
going at full speed. The horse, a thoroughbred mare, 
kept on with us in the rush. (I will here say that I 
never saw the young man again — he was just in front 
of me when he fell — until three or four years after, in 
a pulpit, as a Presbyterian preacher. He had gotten 
over his wound without its doing him permanent in- 
jury). On we went, picking up some of the rear of 
the party who had not moved quick enough. The 
main body had gotten where there were thick woods 
on both sides of the road, where they halted to 
make a stand. But we were upon them before they 
made their wheel to face to the rear, or rather while 
they were in the act of making it, and so had them at 
advantage ; we were among them with the sabre. The 
work was short and sharp, and we drove them along 
the road clear of the wood into the open field, where 
there was a strong dismounted reserve. Here we 
caught a fire that dropped two of our leading horses 
— Captain Caldwell's and Lieutenant Hinson's. Cald- 
well's horse was killed dead. Hinson's fell with a 



THE FALLING FLAG. 23 

l^roken leg, catching his rider under him and holding 
him until relieved. ' A heavy fire swept the woods 
and road, so we dismounted the brigade as fast as the 
men came up, extending the dismounted line along 
the front of the enemy's fire, and moving to the left as 
he fell back to a stronger position. As we moved in 
advance they gave up the position by the house they 
had first taken, fell back across the field and ravine 
to the top of the opposite hill, where they halted in 
force and threw up temporary breastworks, made 
from a rail fence, and from that position repeated 
the invitation to " Come and get greenbacks." We 
moved up, occupied the ravine immediately in their 
front, which was deep enough to shelter the mounted 
officers, the line officers and the men being dis- 
mounted. Here General Gary determined to hold 
his position, until General Fitz Lee, who commanded 
our cavalry, came up, not deeming it advisable to at- 
tack the enemy in his present position and numbers. 
In half an hour's time General Fitz Lee came up 
with his division, dismounted his men, formed line, 
flanked the position, charged it in front, two or three 
heavy volleys, a shout and a rush. The enemy find- 
ing his position untenable moved off to the main 
body, not more than two or three miles from them — 
moving rapidly, as we found several of their wounded 
on the roadside, left in the hurry of their retreat. 
We moved on slowly after them — the sun being 
nearly down — to "Amelia Springs," some two miles 
-ofi, crossed the creek, and, though we had commenced 



24 THE FALLING FLAG. 

the fight in the morning, were pohtely requested 
(everybody knows what a mihtary request is) by 
General Lee to move down the road until we could 
see the Yankee pickets, put the brigade into camp, 
post pickets, and make the best of it — all of which 
we did. 

We did not have far to go to find the pickets — 
about a mile ; posted our own two or three hundred 
yards from the brigade ; sent to the mill on the creek 
at "Amelia Springs " and drew rations of flour and 
bacon. 

I had here one of those unexpected surprises that 
sometimes gleam upon us under the most unpropi- 
tious circumstances. As we rode up to the big white 
house on the hill General Fitz Lee stood giving 
orders for the disposition of the troops. Our men 
were in numbers filling their canteens with water at 
the well in the yard, when a lieutenant from the 
Hampton Legion came from the well with his can- 
teen in his hand. .'' B.," I said, " I am very thirsty ; 
will you give me a drink from your canteen?" 
" Certainly, sir," said he, and handed it to me. I 
took a large swallow and discovered it was excellent 
old a|>ple brandy. I had eaten nothing since a very 
light breakfast ; had been working hard in the saddle 
all day ; had the breath knocked out of my body by 
a spent ball on the chest at the close of the charge in 
the woods ; the excitement of the fight was over, 
and I was lying over the pommel, rather than sitting- 
on my saddle, but as that electric fluid went down 



THE FALLING FLAG. 25 

my throat I straightened up like a soldier at the word 
of command ; I felt a new life pouring through my 
veins, and the worry and care of the situation was all 
gone, and I was ready for what was to come next — 
such is the power of contrast. B., who was watching 
me, raised a warning finger not to betray his secret, 
for what was a canteen of applebrandy to that crowd, 
that would not be denied ? so I concealed my satis- 
faction and his secret, but have never forgotten my 
obligation to Lieutenant B. of the Hampton Legion. 

All around us through the stillness floated the 
music of the Yankee bands, mocking with their 
beautiful music our desperate condition ; yet our men 
around their fires were enjoying it as much, and, 
seemingly, with as light hearts as the owners of it. 
Occasionally, as a bugle call would ring oat, which 
always sounds to a trooper as a challenge to arms, a 
different expression would show itself, and a harder 
look take the place of the softer one induced by 
"Home, Sweet Home," or "Annie Lawrie." 

So we made our bivouac in sight of the enemy's 
pickets, eating our homely rations with the keen rel- 
ish and appetite health and hard work give. While 
our neighbors, whose interest in us could not be 
questioned, gave us the benefit of many a soft air, 
that told of other and very different scenes, we, 
in the language of romance, addressed ourselves to 
slumber, expecting an attack at or before daylight. 
This was our first night in sight of their outposts, 
and we had yet to learn their plan of attack. The 



26 THE FALLING FLAG. 

game was m tlie toils and they meant to play a sure 
hand, with no more waste of material than was ab- 
solutely necessary. There was no night attack that 
T recollect in the course of the retreat. General 
Grrant's large force seemed to be kept perfectly in 
hand, massed with great care to strike with effect at 
any given point on our line of march, gain the result 
of an overwhelming attack in force, and draw off in 
time to prevent disorder among their own troops — a 
wise arrangement under the circumstances. 

Another pleasing incident occurred at this camp, 
as everything is relative and is great or little, accord- 
ing to circumstances. One of the non-commissioned 
officers of my old company came to me and asked if 
I would like to have my canteen filled with some 
very fine old apple brandy. One of G-eneral Lee's 
couriers had found a barrel of it covered up with 
leaves in an adjoining piece of woods, and let a few 
of his friends into the secret. Would I? Of course I 
wou.ld, and if we ever came out ahead I would recom- 
mend him for promotion. The canteen came full, and 
proved to be of the same tap as the " long swallow " 
was of which I had partaken so unex|)ectedly. That 
canteen of apple brandy, like Boniface's ale, was meat 
and drink for the rest of the time I was a soldier of 
the Southern Confederacy. 

We got off about eight o'clock in the morning, not 
having been disturbed, as we expected, moved back 
across the creek that runs through the meadows at 
the foot of the hill below the hotel at " Amelia 



THE FALLING FLAG. 27 

Springs," halted and formed line, facing to the rear 
along the creek, from the ford at the road down the 
creek to the mill, destroyed the bridge, and held the 
position as rear-guard, untfl Greneral Lee, whose camp 
was above us on the hill, around the hotel, formed 
liis column and moved, we following slowly in the 
rear. 

We marched that day, until the afternoon, among 
the infantry, artillery and wagons, going towards 
Farmville, on the Appomattox river and the Lynch- 
burg railroad. There was a bridge across the river, 
at which, as was afterwards shown, it was General 
Lee's purpose to cross his infantry wagons and artil- 
lery. 

We had been having a very tiresome march on our 
worn-out horses, through the fields on the side of the 
road, giving up the road proper to the wagon trains 
and troops, sometimes dismounting and leading our 
liorses, to relieve them as much as possible. 

About two or three o'clock we saw the infantry in 
iront of us breaking from the line of march by bri- 
gades into a large field on the left of the road, and 
rapidly forming into compact masses in proper posi- 
tion and relation with one another, to be used as 
might be required. We halted and did the same, 
being the only cavalry at that point. We soon heard 
lieavy firing on another road over to the right, two or 
three miles from us, artillery and small arms, and 
nearer to us — not a mile — was a lesser fight go- 
ing on, to which we moved at once. The last, 



28 THE FALLING FLAG. 

wMcli was over before we got to it, was between 
General Lee's division of cavalry and a body of tbe 
enemy's infantry. They were, as we were told, a 
fresh, set of troops who had just come on, and were 
literally gobbled up by Lee. We met the prisoners 
— some eight or nine hundred — going to the rear. 
Their coats were so new and blue, and buttons sa 
bright, and shirts so clean, that it was a wonder to 
look upon them by our rusty lot. 

They were pushing on to cooperate with the larger 
movement that was going on to the right, and fell in 
with General Lee's cavalry, and after a very respect- 
able fight had their military experience brou.ght to an 
abrupt conclusion. Lee's men had possessed them- 
selves of a complete set of new brass instruments 
that formed their band. 

The fight on the right was the heaviest and most 
damaging to us that occurred on the retreat, and is- 
known as the Battle of " Sailor's Creek," or " High 
Bridge," where the divisions of General Kershaw and 
General Custis Lee, under the command of Lieuten- 
ant General Ewell, were knocked to pieces — and 
General Kichard Anderson's command, composed of 
Pickett's Division and Bushrod Johnson's, with Hu- 
ger's artillery. Pickett's and Huger's commands were^ 
I think, destroyed, but Johnson managed to get 
through. Generals Kershaw, Ewell and Lee were, I 
know, taken prisoners. All this we knew nothing o£ 
at the time, only that there was heavy fighting, and 
that being a matter of course, excited no surprise. 



THE FALLING- FLAG. 2& 

The sun was nearly down and we moved towards 
Farmyille, to go into camp for the night. It was 
after dark when we got there, went through the town 
to the grove on the other side, and made the best of 
it. We lived upon what we could pick up, as we had 
no wagons with us, and our servants and spare horses 
were with the wagon train. 

The most fruitful source of supply was when we 
passed a broken down commissary wagon. The men 
would fill their haversacks with whatever they could 
find ; and whatever they got, either in this way or at 
the country houses, was liberally shared with their 
friends and officers. 

By a big fire we lay down, and slept the sleep of 
the tired. The nights were cold, so near the moun- 
tains, and, with light coverings on the cold ground,, 
the burning down of the fire was a general awaken- 
ing and building up of the same. At one of these 
movements we were surprised to find, between Colo- 
nel H. and myself, two men, who, attracted by 
the fire, cold and tired, had crept to its friendly 
warmth, making a needless apology for their pres- 
ence. We found one to be a colonel of Pickett's 
division, the other a lieutenant, and realized fully 
how complete the destruction of that famous fighting 
division must have been as an organization, that we 
should find a regimental commander who did not 
know where to look for its standard. There seemed 
to be no particular hurry in getting off in the morn- 
ing. We were waiting for orders by our fire, and 



so THE FALLING FLAG. 

filled up the time pressing horses in the town, from a 
kind consideration of the feelings of the owners, that 
they should not fall into the hands of the Yankees, 
much to the disgust of the said owners, who seemed 
much to prefer (good men and true as they were) the 
possible chance of the Yankee to the certainty of the 
Confederate abstraction. 

One or two amusing incidents occurred in that con- 
nection. One of ou.r young lieiitenants had heard of 
a very fine bay stallion, belonging to a gentleman in 
town, and as the rumor had spread that pressing 
horse flesh was going on, he went off promptly with 
a man or two, reached the house, and was met at the 
door by a young and pretty woman, who, with all the 
elegant kindness of a Yirginia lady, asked him to 
come in. He felt doubtful, but could not resist ; or- 
dering his men to hold on a minute or two, while he 
talked horse with the lady, wishing, in the innocent 
kindness of his heart, to break it to her gently. After 
a few minutes' general conversation he touched on 
the horse question. " Oh ! yes, sir," she said, getting 
up and looking through a window that overlooked the 
back yard. " Yes, sir ; I am sorry to disappoint you, 
but as you came in at the front door my husband was 
saddling the bay, and while you were talking to me I 
saw him riding out of the back gate. I am so soiTy ; 
indeed I amr With a hasty good morning our lieu- 
tenant rode back to camp upon a horse some degrees 
below the standard of a "Eed Eye'' or any other 
Tace horse. The laugh was with the lady. 



THE FALLING FLAG. 31 

Another case was against a class who met with but 
little sympathy from a soldier in the field — a local 
or collecting quartermaster, when of a particular class — 
some able bodied young man, every way fit for the sol- 
dier, except in spirit, getting the position to screen him- 
self from field duty and make money out of a suffer- 
ing people. The order had been given through the 
brigade to take the horses wherever they could be 
found. A wagon with two good horses drove between 
our fire and that of the squadron lying next. A captain 
stepped out, stopped the wagon, and the horses were 
taken out and appropriated — the boy diiving them 
ran off — and soon there came riding up a dashing 
young quartermaster on a fine grey horse, gi'oomed to 
perfection, and horse and rider redolent of the sybar- 
itism of the department, claimed the horses as belong- 
ing to Ms department^ with a most insolent air, looking 
daggers and court martials, and swelling as only over- 
fed subsistence agents on home duty could do. While 
he was talking I saw Captain D. walking round him 
looking at the gallant grey, and then at our colonel 
inquiringly. A nod from the colonel and Captain D's 
hand was on the grey's bridle, and a quiet but firm 
request, that sounded very much like an order, for 
him to get down, as his horse was wanted for cavalry 
service. The man of the subsistence and transporta- 
tion department was so dumbfounded that he would 
have let pass the best operation possible of making 
money out of the necessities of the people for which 
his tribe was famous ; but just then a bugle rang out 



S2 THE FALLING FLAG. 

the call for "boot and saddle;" tlie bugles of tbe 
otlier regiments took it np ; the momentary diversion 
of the horse pressing and the quartermaster was for- 
gotten ; work was at hand ; the rumbling of the artil- 
lery and wagons crossing the bridge, with columns of 
infantry between, could be heard down in the town at 
the foot of the hill, and the cavalry were wanted on 
the other side of the town, by the Eandolph House, 
to hold the enemy in check and cover the crossing of 
the river. 

The brigade was soon in the saddle, and mo^dng at 
a swinging trot down the long street that constitutes 
mainly the town of Farmville. As the regiment 
passed a large building on the right, which was shown 
to be a boarding school for young ladies, from the 
number gathered on the piazza in front, we were 
greeted by their waving handkerchiefs and moist eyes, 
while cheer after cheer rose from our men in response 
to their kindness and sympathy. They did not know, 
as we did, that their friends and defenders were to 
pass by, leaving them so soon in the hands most 
dreaded by them. They saw us going to the front ; 
our men were excited by the circumstances and the 
prospect of a fight, and the light of that wild glory 
that belongs to war shone over it all. . The rough, 
grey soldier, the tramping column, and the groups of 
tender girls, mixed with it like flowers on a battle 
field, incongruous in detail, but blending with the pic- 
ture, like discords in music, making it complete. 

So on through the town, across the little stream, 



THE FALLING FLAG. 83 

and up tlie hill, on the top of which on the right 
Btood a large white building, called, as I recollect, the 
Eandolph House ; in the field around were gathered 
and gathering large bodies of our cavalry, under the 
-command of General F. H. Lee, Greneral Eosser and 
■other distinguished cavalry officers. We took our 
position among them. As before stated, our column, 
artillery and wagon train, were pouring in a steady 
-stream across the bridge, and the enemy were press- 
ing up theii' artillery, and already throwing long shots 
at it from batteries not near enough to do much if 
■any harm, and too much under cover to admit of an 
efiectual attack from us. 

Greneral Lee dismounted the most of his command 
.■and formed a line of battle along the road looking to- 
ward the point from which the enemy were advancing. 

We (our brigade) were kept in the saddle at the 
point we first occupied on the right of the road. 
There was a house some three hundred yards from 
the road on the left, directly in front of General Lee's 
line, in a grove of oak, with a lane or avenue leading 
to it from the main road. Behind the house a battery 
seemed gradually advancing and already throwing its 
shells at or about the bridge. So far they were com- 
pletely masked by the house, and we could only 
judge of their movements from their fire, which 
seemed closer every moment. 

In pursuance of some order we changed our posi- 
tion, and rode to General Lee's dismounted line of 
battle. As we rode up — our regiment, the Seventh, 



34 THE FALLING FLAG. 

leading — ^we were tlie right flank regiment in tlie bri- 
gade formation, and in column with, the right in front 
were necessarily in advance. The battery seemed by 
this time to have gotten immediately behind the 
honse, and was pitching shells about the bridge and 
into the town (the bridge was at the foot of the street) 
with precision and rapidity. Expecting to see it un- 
mask itself in front of the house every moment, Gen- 
eral Lee said to our colonel, " Haskell, as soon as 
that battery shows itself take it with your regiment ; 
you can do it." 

We moved at once down the avenue toward the 
house up to the edge of the oak wood, with which the 
lawn in front was surrounded, formed the regiment in 
column of fours in the road. The colonel rode along 
the side of the column, the adjutant detailing three of 
the best mounted men from each company — the horses 
were the animals specially selected — the men at that 
stage of the game were all known to be good — making 
thirty men, and the senior captain, Doby, in immedi- 
ate command of the party. 

The colonel rode in front of the halted column 
some forty or fifty yards, with his thirty men, after 
directing the officer next in command to ride down 
the flank of the regiment, form, and speak to each 
" set of fours " separately. Each set of fours waited 
for the word of command to be given to themselves 
specially, and as the order was given " to close u|) and 
dress," they did so steadily and firmly, and I looked 
into the eyes of each man in the regiment, and they 



THE FALLING FLAG. 60 

looked into mine. There was little left for words to 
say. 

There we sat, waiting to charge the battery that 
was momentarily expected to unmask in front of the 
house — something over two hundred men of the t^^ 
thousand on our muster roll, and all the cavalry of 
the army of Northern Yirginia, looking on to see 
■ how we did it. 

The shells from the battery whistled four or five feet 
above our heads, for they had discovered our line on 
the hill and turned their fire on it. ' The shells went 
over our heads, but struck a few feet in front of 
General Lee's dismounted line, making gaps in it as 
they did so. 

Just then information was received that our march- 
ing column had crossed the bridge — our charge was 
not to be — there was nothing to wait for. Greneral 
Lee mounted his men, formed, and moved oS 
promptly to cross the river at a ford some two 
miles farther up, leaving General Gary with his bri- 
gade to cover his retreat. "We drew off from the posi- 
tion we had taken to attack the battery, the regiment 
resiiming its position at the head of the brigade, with 
the exception of Colonel Haskell, Captain Loby, and 
the thirty men before chosen — this party remained in - 
the rear of the brigade, all moving off slowly, the last 
of General Lee's division having by this time gone 
out of sight over the top of the hill. 

We had not yet been able to perceive that the 
bridge was on fire. General Gary said that General 

3 



86 THE FALLING FLAG. 

Lee had left it to his discretion to cross at tlie bridge 
if he could, as he expected we would be pressed very 
closely at the last ; so, instead of following Greneral 
Lee's hne of retreat, we turned down towards the 
town agam and halted in the street while the Greneral 
himself galloped down to the bridge to see if it was 
practicable. The shells were bursting over the town, 
and in the street occasionally, while the good people 
of Famiville, in a state of great though natural 
alarm, were leaving with theii' goods forthwith. We 
told them we were going at once ; were not to make 
a fight in the town ; to keep quiet in their houses, 
and it was not probable they would be interfered 
with. 

The bridge, bursting into smoke and flame, told 
the story before the Greneral got back. On we went 
up the street, through the grove where we camped 
the night before, on toward the railroad, following the 
ti'ack taken by Greneral Lee. 

Just beyond the wood, on the outskirts of the 
town, a large creek runs under the railroad through 
an arched way or viaduct, wide enough for the road 
to pass along its bank. After crossing this creek, on 
a bridge on the town side of the railroad embankment, 
we passed along the road under the culvert, and 
formed on the edge of the woods some three or 
four hundred yards beyond. Colonel Haskell, with 
Captain Doby and his thnty men, halted at the 
bridge to destroy it, as by tliis time bodies of the 
enemy's cavalry could be seen moving at a gallop on 



THE FALLING FLAG. 87 

the hill above. The creek was too deep for a ford ; 
so it was all important, in connection with our cross- 
ing the river, to check their advance by burning the 
bridge. Colonel Haskell, dismounting, placed all of 
his party, except his axemen, behind the railroad 
bank which overlooked the bridge and served as a 
capital breastwork, went to work with a will. By 
this time the enemy was upon them and commenced 
a heavy fire, which was returned handsomely by the 
party under cover and with good effect. Colonel 
Haskell succeeded in the complete destruction of 
the bridge, with the loss of only one of his axemen 
killed 

, The cover of the bank, and the small number ac- 
tually exposed when at work, enabled him to per- 
form a gallant and dangerous piece of service with 
slight loss. 

Greneral Grary, who had occupied a position be- 
tween the wood where the brigade was formed and 
near where the bridge party was at work, so as to be 
in complete command of whatever might take place, 
moved on at once toward the ford where Greneral 
Lee had already crossed his division. We moved by 
regiments in intervals after him. 

By some mistake of our guide we were carried to 
a point in the river which was not practicable, at the 
then " stage of the river, as a ford — which we duly 
discovered after nearly drowning two or three men 
and horses of the ambulance train, whom we found at 
the head of the column when we reached the river, 



38 THE FALLING FLAG. 

their usual place being in the rear. The adjutant, 
finding them in front, asked them, " What the deuce 
are you doing here — your place is in the rear?"" 
" No, sir," said a long-backed individu.al of the party, in 
a copper colored raiment, who seemed to have been 
making a study of the rules and regulations as apply- 
ing to his own department. " Not so. In the rear, I 
grant you, in the advance ; in the front, if you please, 
in a retreat." " So be it," said I. "In with you ;" and 
in they went, nothing loth. The river was swim- 
ming and the horses swam badly, making plunges to 
reach the opposite bank, which, when they gained, 
was steep and treacherou.s, and it was only after re- 
peated efforts, and then riders getting off into the 
river, that they made a landing. It was apparent 
that this could not be the point that General Lee had 
crossed his division. Some one turned up who led 
us right. About a mile farther up we found the 
ford that he had crossed at, and got over without 
difficulty or molestation; it was scarcely swimming 
to the smallest horse, and directly opposite lay all of 
the Virginia cavalry to cover our crossing, if pressed, 
while it was going on. We were the first regiment 
that crossed ; found some stacks of oats ; halted, 
formed in squadrons, fed our horses, ate what we 
had to eat, rested, and, as usual, made the best of it. 

. After a rest of about an hour General Lee moved 
off, we following in his rear, the Virginians ahead of 
us with General Lee destroying the equanimity of 
the good people on their line of march by pressing 



THE FALLING FLAG. 39 

every horse found in their way. Ic seemed hard to 
<iome down so on our own people, after all the sacri- 
fices already made by them, but if the horse was lost 
"by our taking him, which was apt to be the result, 
the proceeding mounted at least one of our own 
troopers ; on the other hand it gave a fresh horse to 
the enemy, and was equally lost to the owner — and 
this was the view the Virginians usually took of it 
General Lee, being ahead of us, made a clean sweep 
as he went along, leaving scarce a gleaning of horse- 
flesh for us. After a while we came upon the wagons 
and infantry again. It was not long before the ring- 
ing of a volley and the roar of a piece of artillery let 
lis know that an attack had been made on our train 
.again. We moved up to the firing at a gallop, and as 
we passed along there came sweeping through the 
ivoods, from the road running parallel with the one 
we were on, a body of infantry in line, moving at a 
double quick upon the same point, which was but a 
short distance ahead of u.s. They were what was left 
of the famous " Texas brigade," well remembered by 
.some of "US in 1861 on the Occoquon at Dumfries — 
first commanded by Wigfall, then a short time by 
Archer, then by Hood, then Grregg, who was killed 
October 26th, 1864, at the fight on the Darby town 
Toad. At this time the brigade counted about one 
hundred and thirty muskets, commanded by Colonel 
Duke. We had been fighting with them all summer, 
irom Deep Bottom to New Market heights, to the 
lines around Richmond, and they recognized the bri- 



40 THE FALLING FLAG. 

gade as we rode along their front, and with a yell as 
fierce and keen as when their three regiments ave- 
raged a thousand strong, and nothing but victory had 
been around their flag, they shouted to us, " Forward, 
boys, forward, and tell them Texas is coming !" 

When we got into the open field we found that 
General Lee's di^dsion of cavalry had engaged the 
enemy, driven him from his attack on our ti'ain, and 
taken the Federal Greneral Gregg j^risoner. 

The enemy were occupying in force, apparently, the 
woods on the right of the field with infantry and artil- 
lery. We were holding the open field which had 
been the scene of the skirmish before we came up,, 
and threw out skirmishers, and retui'ned the fire of 
their sharpshooters — both sides using a j)iece or two 
of artillery at long range. 

After this had gone on for a while, "ours," the 
Seventh, was ordered to charge in line on horseback, 
through a piece of old field, gi'own uj) in scattering 
pines, upon the battery that was working on us from 
the edge of the oak woods. The line was formed and 
we went at it very handsomely, our men keeping up 
their line and fire astonishingly, considering we were 
armed with " muzzle loaders " (the gi'eatest possible 
of all drawbacks to the efficiency of cavalry). 

We drew on ourselves at once a heavy fire of artil- 
lery and small arms, which told smartly on our line, 
knocking over men and horses, until the left flank of 
the regiment came upon a ravine, or deep wash, cov- 
ering nearly half of its front. The horses could not 



THE FALLING FLAG. 41 

cross. We moved by the right flank to clear the 
obstruction, and then found that the object of our 
demonstration had been answered. It had been made 
to cover the withdrawal of a body of our infantry 
that had been advanced on our right. It was sun- 
down. We left a strong line of pickets, or rather a 
skirmish line, under command of Lieutenant Muner- 
lyn, upon the ground we had occupied, and drew ofi 
into the open field, waiting for dark before going into 
camp, or rather lying on our arms. It had been a 
tiresome day, and, though neither then nor now an 
admirer of strong drink, I fell back upon and fully 
appreciated the contents of my canteen — the famous 
apple brandy of Amelia Springs. 

This, although we did not know it then, was destined 
to be (save the last of all) the hardest night upon us. 
We moved into a piece of woods as soon as it was dark, 
and formed the regiment in squadrons, with orders to 
water horses, a squadron at a time — the rest holding 
position, the men in the saddle, until the return of 
the preceding squadron — and then picket their horses 
and make fires as near as possible on the same 
ground. But when the first squadron returned from 
the water, and the field ofiicers had just unbuckled 
their sabres and stretched themselves on the ground 
to take the rest so much needed, and watch that most 
interesting process to a hungry man, the building up 
the little fire that was to do his modest cooking, 
when an orderly comes from General Grary to change 
camp — to buckle up and mount, and follow the or- 



42 THE FALLING FLAG. 

derlj a half mile to the rear. We were, it seemed, 
too near the enemy's line, looking to the contem- 
plated movement. 

At the new location — a comfortable piece of piny 
woods old field — we finished what we had begnn at 
the other point. At onr mess, slee]D seemed to be the 
great object in view. I went to sleep immediately, 
my head on my saddle ; woke in abont a half hour's 
time to eat what there was, and instantly to sleep 
again ; bnt that was not to be. At abont ten o'clock 
a quiet order mounted n.s, almost before, as the little 
boys say, we got the " sleep ont of our eyes." We 
were in column on the road, and non-commissioned 
ofTicers under the direction of the adjutant riding- 
down it, each with a handkerchief full of cartridges, 
suppljdng the men with that very necessary " article 
of war." And then commenced that most weary 
night march, that will always be remembered by the 
tired men who rode it, that ended only (without a 
halt, except a marching one,) at Appomattox Court, 
house. 

The line of retreat had been changed, and by a 
forced night march on another road a push was being 
y made for the mountains at Lynchburg. Had we got- 
ten there (and Appomattox Court-house was within 
twenty miles of Lynchburg) with the men and ma- 
terial General Lee still had with him, Lee's last strug- 
gle among the mountains of his native State would 
have made a picture to swell the soldier's heart with 
pride to look upon. The end we know would have 



THE FALLING FLAG. 48 

\>Gen the same ; a few more noble hearts would have 
bled in vain, and song and story would but have 
found new themes to tell the old, old tale — how will- 
ing brave men are to die for what they believe to be 
right. Through long lines of toiling wagons, artillery 
trains and tired men, we pushed on as rapidly as we 
could ; at a bad piece of road, at a creek or a muddy 
hill, the column sometimes got cut in two by a por- 
tion getting through the wagons, the train then closing, 
waiting upon a wagon mired down ahead. 

At one of these halts for the brigade to close up 
SLTid for the regiments to report position, General Gary 
had halted, at a large fire made from the rails of some 
good farmer's fence by troops ahead of us, and round 
it we all gathered, for the night was cold. The 
subject of conversation with the brigade staff when 
we joined was, that Captain M., the inspector, not 
being well, had, early in the night, halted at a farm 
house and gone to bed, just to see how it would feel, 
putting his horse in the farmer's stable ; and when 
he roused himself to the necessities of his position, 
and sought to ride with the rest, he found his horse 
-was gone. Some pressing party had gone that way. 

I remembered, when I hstened to the drowsy talk 
:about the captain's loss, that a couple of enterprising 
young fellows had reported some horses at a farm 
house and gotten permission to go after them. They 
had not long returned with their prizes; they, the 
hiorses, stood just on the edge of light thrown by the 
fire against the darkness that rose like a wall behind 



44 THE FALLING FLAG. 

it, the Mnd-quarters of one, a large, leggy bay, with 
stockings on his hind legs, could be seen from where 
we sat ; one of the orderlies, looking with sleepy eyes 
from the log on which he was sitting at the horses, ex- 
pressed himself to the effect that he thought that- 
" long-legged bay " looked about the hind-quarters a 
good deal like the captain's missing charger. And so- 
it proved. While the captain " dallied at Capua," press- 
ing the luxurious blanket of the Virginia farmer, his 
horse, in camp parlance, was " lifted " by our enter- 
prising youth ; and, much to their disgust, the cap- 
tain reentered into possession of his leggy war horse. 
They expressed themselves to the effect. that they 
would as soon have stolen his horse as any body 
else's. 

Again in the saddle, tramping through mud holes, 
splashing in ruts, we worked Our way amid the long 
line of wagons, troops and artillery, until daylight 
came to our relief. About eight o'clock we came 
upon our own wagon train — the first, and, by the way, 
the only time we encountered it on our route — comfort- 
ably camped in a fine grove, good fires, and a glori- 
ous smell of cooking permeating the early morning 
air. The headquarter wagons of our regiment were 
parked near a fine fire, and our servants (never ex- 
pecting to see us again, I suppose,) were cooking on a 
large scale from our private stores for a half dozen 
notorious wagon-rats of the genteeler sort. 

Of course, as we rode up our boys declared they 
expected us and were getting breakfast ready, which 



THE FALLING FLAG. 45 

Statement was sustained by " messieurs," the wagon- 
rats ; but the longing look they cast at a big pot of rice 
steaming by the fire as they drew off, indicated a 
deeper interest than I think it possible for them to 
have gotten up on any one's account but their own. 
We had a most comfortable breakfast and a rest of an 
hour only, the time being taken up in dozing and 
eating. 

Bad as the night had been the day was a beautiful 
one. The sun was shining bright ; our breakfast and 
rest had so refreshed us, short as that rest was, that 
we resumed our march and the work before us, cheer- 
ful and ready to meet it, whatever it might be, and 
what that " might be " was no man troubled himself 
to know. 

Not long after resuming our march we posted 
pickets at some cross roads, under the immediate 
direction of General R E. Lee himself. .We moved 
steadily on to-day without molestation of any kind, 
the wagons moving in double lines, the road being 
wide enough to admit it. About twelve o'clock or a 
little later we had halted to water our horses at a 
stream that crossed the road. It takes a good deal of 
time for a large body of cavalry to water their horses^ 
particularly if the stream is small, and the men have 
to be watched closely to prevent their fouling the 
water. 

I had dismounted and was leaning across my horse,, 
when I saw, as I thought. Captain Allen, of the 
Twenty-fourth Virginia, of our brigade, having wat- 



46 THE FALLIXG FLAG. 

€red his horse where the stream crossed the road. 
The captain was a fine specimen of a Yirginia soldier 
and gentleman, some sixty years of age, of fine pres- 
ence, who was always said to resemble Greneral Lee, 
wearing his grey beard trimmed after the fashion of 
that of our great leader, and in the saddle having 
^bont the same height, though dismounted, the cap- 
tain, I should say, was the taller. However, I watched 
the old captain, as I thought, riding up the hill toward 
me, on a very fine grey horse, and was thinking what 
.a type of the veteran soldier he looked, as indeed I 
had often thought before, until he got within a few 
feet of me, when I changed my intended rather famil- 
iar, but still most respectful salute, meant for the 
captain, for the reverence with which the soldier 
.salutes the standard of his legion — which represents to 
him all that he has left to love and honor — as I dis- 
covered that it was Greneral R B. Lee himself, riding 
alone — not even an orderly in attendance. He re- 
turned our salute, his eye taking it all in, with a calm 
smile, that assured us our confidence was not mis- 
placed. He bore the pressure of the responsibility 
that was upon him as only a great and good man 
€Ould^ — as one who felt that, happen what may, self- 
ishness — consideration of what might happen to him- 
self — -had nothing to do with it. 

So I felt satisfied that there was a likeness between 
Captain Allen, of the Twenty-fourth Virginia, and 
•General R E. Lee of the Soathern Confederacy. 

A little after this we got orders to move on, as 



THE FALLING FLAG. 47 

quickly as we could, in advance to Appomattox 
Conrt-house. " Appomattox Conrt-honse " is a small 
county town about a mile from tlie Lynchburg rail- 
road. At tbe foot of tbe bill on wbich the court- 
house and tbe three or four houses that constitn.te the 
village stand, run the headwaters of the Appomattox 
riyer, a small stream, not knee deep to a horse. 

As soon as we cleared the wagon train we got over 
ground much faster, and rode into and through the 
town just as the sun was setting. We stopped at a 
piece of woods on the outskirts of the village, and 
halted in the road while the quartermasters were 
selecting the gTound, and the regiments were closing 
up. Our foragers, that had been detailed before we 
got into town, were riding in with the hay they had 
collected on the pommels of their saddles, and all 
was as quiet as a scene in " Arcady," when the still- 
ness was broken by the scream of a shell, the report 
of a gun, and then the burst- up of the missile as it 
finished its mission and reported progress — and then 
another, and another, until as pretty battery practice 
was developed down yonder by the depot — Clover 
Hill I think it is called — as you would wish to hear. 

Without knowing positively anything about it, 
those whom I had conversed with relative to our 
pushing on to the CoUrt-house were under the im- 
pression that a large body of our infantry were ahead 
of us — General Dick Anderson's corps. He was 
there, as it turned out, but his corps had been ex- 
pended a day or two before ; it had been completely 



48 THE FALLING FLAG. 

fought out, for we had no better officer than Lt. Greneral 
Eichard Anderson, an old West Pointer — cavalry at 
that — and a South Carolinian to boot. 

It was, however, " hammer and tongs " down there 
at all events- — shell, grape and canister at short range. 
Oustar's division of Sheridan's cavalry had taken the 
chord of the arc, and reached the depot just abput 
the time we got to the village. A knowledge of his 
movements had caused our being sent forward, his 
object being to strike the artillery train, which was in 
.advance of us — sixty pieces, under General Walker. 
Three batteries were left at the depot to hold it, while 
the rest retreated along the Lynchburg pike. That 
was the position of things when the firing began. 
The three batteries were, Washington Artillery, 
Louisiana ; the Donaldson ville Cannoneers, Creoles 
exclusively, Louisiana ; and the Yirginia battery here- 
tofore attached to our brigade. 

While we were closing up our scattered ranks, and 
getting the brigade ready for action as rapidly as 
coolness, skill and courage could do it, a department 
officer (I think he was) came galloping up to us from 
the scene of action, apparently under orders from 
himself to get out of the way ; but the natural inso- 
lence of his class broke out in spite of the scare that 
was on him, and he commenced giving orders at 
once. I happened to be the person addressed — " Get 
on at once ; the enemy are down yonder ! Why don't 
you go at once ? Are all you men going to stand 
here and let the eneni}^ '' — and so on. The colonel 



THE FALLING FLAG. ^9 

had ridden down the column to see that all was 
straight, while the " Legion " and the Twenty-fourth 
Yirginia were closing up, so that when we did move 
it would be as a compact body — when the oi^der 
-came ringing along — " Forward, forward, men ! gal- 
lop !" — and our indignant friend was lost in the rush 
of the column while yet haranguing us for being so 
slow. 

The roar of the batteries was incessant. They 
were evidently holding the dismounted cavalry in 
■check. As rapidly as we could get over ground we 
moved towards them, and formed the brigade in the 
£eld to the left of tlie position held by the batteries, 
in what might be called a column of regiments. As 
we formed the regiment from a column of fours into 
line, they came down from a gallop to a trot at the 
order, " Front into line," as steadily as if on parade ; 
then followed, "Eight dress, front" — and all were 
ready for. the next move. 

Our batteries from the right were shelling the 
woods opposite to us. In front, under cover, some 
of the cavalry skirmishers were using their Spencers 
upon us at long range, and a squadron of ours, the 
Fifth, was detailed to move up and take a position 
opposite and return their fire. 

By this time the grey of twilight was lighted up 
"by the rising moon, and there seemed to be a lull in 
the attack. Greneral Grary and Colonel Haskell had 
Tidden over our front and communicated with the 
■commanding officer of the batteries ; the consequence 



50 THE FALLING FLAG. 

of wliicli was, the brigade was dismounted and 
doiible-quicked tlirongh a small piece of wood to the 
batteiies. Before our men could get to the guns 
the enem}^ charged and got among them, but were 
driven back by the fire and our rush, but taking 
with them some of our men as prisoners — among 
them Captain Hankins, of the Virginia battery, who 
got away and came running up to me as I rode to 
my place. Our men fell in between the guns, and 
then began one of the closest artillery fights, for the 
numbers engaged and the time it lasted, that occurred 
during the war. The guns were fought literally up 
to the muzzles. It was dark by this time, and at 
every discharge the cannon was ablaze from touch- 
hole to mouth, and there must have been six or 
eight pieces at work, and the small arms of some 
three or four hundi^ed men packed in among the 
guns in a very confined space. It seemed hke the 
very jaws of the lower regions. They made three 
distinct charges, preluding always with the bugle, on 
the right, left and centre, confusing the point of at- 
tack ; then, with a cheer and up they came. It was 
too dark to see anything under the shadow of the 
trees but the long dark line. They would get within 
thirty or forty yards of the guns and then roll back, 
under the deadly fire that was poui-ed upon them 
from the artillery and small arms. Amid the flash- 
ing, and the roaring, and the shouting, rose the wild 
yell of a railroad whistle, as a train rushed up almost 
among us (the enemy had possession of the road), as 



THE FALLING FLAG. 51 

we were fighting around the depot, sounding on the 
night air as if the devil himself had just come up 
and was about to join in what was going on. 

Then came a lull ; our friends in front seemed to 
have had the wire edge taken oft. 

Our horses had been sent back to the turnpike 
road; General Gary taking advantage of the present 
quiet sent Colonel Haskell to get them together — 
rather a difficult task, as it afterwards proved. 

General Gary's great object was to draw off the 
guns, if possible, now night had set in, from the 
depot, and get them bade with the rest of the train 
in the line of retreat. So the order was given to 
limber them up, which was done, and the guns 
moved off at once, it being but a few hundred yards 
to the main road. 

Our brigade in line faced to the rear, the guns be- 
hind them, and covered the movement. The silence 
of the guns soon told our friends over yonder what 
was going on, and they were not long in following 
after ; our men, facing to the rear, delivered their 
fire steadily, moving in retreat, facing and firing 
every few steps, effectually keeping off a rush ; they 
pressed us, but cautiously — the darkness concealed 
our numbers. 

We were going through an open old field, and came 
now to a road through a narrow piece of woods, 
where we broke from line into column, and double- 
quicked through the woods so as to get to the road 
beyond. Before we got to the turnpike we heard the 

4 



52 THE FALLING FLAG. 

bugles of the enemy down it, and as the head of our 
column came into the road their cavalry charged the 
train some two or three hundred yards below ns. 
Sixty pieces of cannon, at the point where we came 
into the road, the drivers were attempting to turn 
back toward the Com-t House, had got entangled 
with one another and presented a scene of ntter con- 
fusion. 

As our regiment got into the road some thirty or 
forty men were thrown out from the last squadron 
and faced to the rear on the right and left, opening a 
fire directly upon those of the dismounted men who 
were pressing us from that quarter. I had but little 
fear of the enemy's cavalry riding into us on the road, 
so blocked up as it was with the routed artillery train,, 
and there were woods on both sides just here. 

In passing from the old field, where the guns had 
been at work, into the woods that separated it from 
the turnpike, two men were walking just in front of 
me, following their gun, which ^_was on before. I 
heard one say, " Tout j^erdiC I asked at once^ 
"What battery do you belong to?" " Donaldson- 
ville." It was the Creole company ; and they might 
well have added the other words of the gTcat Francis^ 
after the battle of Pavia, " Tout perdu fors Vhonneur^'^ 
all lost but honor ; for well had they done their work 
from ' sixty-one, when they came to Yirginia, until 
now, when all was lost, " Tout perdu " — it was the 
motto of the occasion. 

The stag was in the toils, but the end was not yet» 



THE FALLING FLAG. 53 

We could hear the rush, the shouts and pistol shots, 
where the enemy mounted and in force had attacked 
the train ; the artillerymen having no arms could 
make no fight, as thej could not use their pieces. 
We could do nothing (being closely pressed by a 
superior force of their dismounted men) but fall 
back upon the town toward our main body, making 
the best front we could, leaving the road and march- 
ing under cover of the timber on the side, being on 
foot giving us a better position to resist any attack 
that might be made upon us by the cavalry. 

The fifth squadron of the Seventh, that had been 
thrown out as skirmishers when we first came on the 
ground, had kept their position covering our left 
flank when the fight at the batteries was going on. 
And when we commenced falling back after the guns, 
the adjutant, Lieutenant Capers, was sent to bring 
them to the road, so as to join the regiment. They 
had also been dismounted, and their horses sent with 
the rest. He found them, led them to the road, and, 
on getting on it at a point nearer to the town than 
where we struck it, hearing the bugles and the rush 
of the cavalry on the train, he at once posted the com- 
panies, with their captains, Doby and Dubose, in tlie 
woods immediately on the road-side, and with the 
parting salutation, " Take care of yourselves, boys," 
(he had been a private in one of the companies, and 
both were from his native district), dashed back to his 
place in the regiment and disappeared round a turn in 
the road. They had scarcely lost sight of him when 



54 THE FALLING FLAG. 

a heavy volley rang out, and Ms horse came round 
the bend at full speed without his rider, jumping over 
in his fright a broken caisson that lay across the road 
— the horse, a very fine roan, the one he was riding 
when, at " Amelia Spring," he, Capers, was the only 
one of the five in advance who escaped, to meet his 
fate that night, pierced by a dozen balls ; the whole 
fire of the cohimn was concentrated upon him, for we 
found his body next day. Some kind hand had given 
him a soldier's grave ; some one, most likely of those 
who fought us, who could not but respect and admire 
the gallant young fellow lying in his blood, and with 
the feeling developed by a soldier's life, " So be it to 
me and mine in my sorrow as I may be to thee this 
day." All the respect was shown that circumstances 
admitted of. 

One of om- captains, who was wounded at the 
" gTins " severely, fell into the enemy's hands when 
we moved them — as everybody was too busy to look 
after the wounded, and ambulance men and stretchers 
were this time neither in the front or rear. He was 
taken up by his new friends quite tenderly, as he 
thought, and put into an ambulance ; but in the 
course of the evening's entertainment the Yankee 
wounded came dropping in, and our friend. Captain 
Walker, was disposed of rather unceremoniously on 
the roadside, for others they valued at a higher rate 
than even a Confederate captain. 

Immediately after the adjutant's horse came Cus- 
tar's cavalry. Seeing all clear before them, they 



THE FALLING FLAG. 55 

came on without a clieck until, when nearly opposite 
where our men of the Fifth squadron were lying in 
the woods, they caught the fire of the entire squad- 
ron, which emptied a good many saddles, and was 
the last shot probably fired that night. 

The Federal cavalry ke^Dt on toward the town, and 
the squadron, under cover, drew deeper into the 
woods, and moved round the town and went into 
camp, but did not join the main body until next 
morning. The enemy kept on until they got into, or 
nearly into the town, but again fell back, establishing 
their line somewhere between the town and the depot. 
Our outside picket was in the town. 

We went into camp about one o'clock in the morn- 
ing, on the Kichmond side of the town, in the woods — 
Greneral Grary riding to General Grordon's headquarters 
to report before lying down. 

April 9th. — The sun rose clear on this the last day, 
practically, of the Southern Confederacy. It was cool 
and fresh in the early morning so near the mountains, 
though the spring must have been a forward one, as 
the oak trees were covered with their long yellow 
tassels. 

We gathered the brigade on the green on the Rich- 
mond side of the village, most of the men on foot, 
the horses not having come in. About eight o'clock 
a large portion of our regiment had their horses — 
they having been completely cut off the night before 
. by the charge of Custar's cavalry on the turnpike, and 
were carried, to save them, into a country cross-road. 



56 THE FALLING FLAG. 

Then tlie " Hampton Legion " got theirs. My im- 
pression is that the Twenty-fourth Virginia lost the 
most or a good many of their horses. The men built 
fires, and all seemed to haye something to eat, and to 
be amusing themselyes eating it. The woods on the 
southern and eastern side swarmed with the enemy 
and their cay airy — a portion of it was between us and 
the " James Eiyer," which was about twelye miles 
distant. General Fitz Lee's diyision of cayaliy lay 
oyer in tbat direction somewhere ; G-eneral Longstreet 
with. Greneral Gordon was in and on the outer edge of 
the town, on the Lynchburg side, and so we waited 
for the performance to commence. 

Looking at and listening to the men you would 
not haye thought there was anytliing sj)ecial in the 
situation. They turned all the responsibility oyer to 
the officers, who in turn did the same to those above 
them — the captain to the colonel, the colonel to the 
brigadier, and^so on. 

Colonel Haskell had not yet returned — lia^dng sent 
in all the horses he had gotten, and was still after the 
balance. About nine or ten o'clock, artillery firing 
began in front of General liOngstreet, and the blue 
jackets showed in heayy masses on the edge of the 
woods. General Grury riding up, put everything that 
had a horse in the saddle, and moved us down the 
hill, just on the edge of the little creek that is here 
the " Appomattox," to wait under cover until wanted. 
Two of our young men, who had some flour and a 
piece of bacon in their haversacks, had improvised a 



THE FALLING FLAG. 57 

cooking utensil out of a bursted canteen, and fried 
some cakes. They offered me a share in their meal, 
'of which I partook with great relish. I then lay 
down, with my head, like the luxurious Highlander, 
upon a smooth stone, and, holding my horse's bridle 
in my hand, was soon in the deep sleep of a tired 
man. But not for long, for down came the general 
in his most emphatic manner^ — and those who know 
Gary know a man whose emphasis can be wonder- 
iully strong when so minded. " Mount, men, mount !" 
I jumped up at the sharp, ringing summons with the 
sleep still in my eyes, and found myself manoeu- 
vring my horse with his rear in front. We soon' 
had everything in its right place, and rode out from 
the bottom into the open hekl, about two hundred 
and fifty strong, to see the last of it. 

Firing was going on, artillery and small arms, be- 
yond the town, and there was Greneral K, E. Lee 
himself, with Longstreet, Grordon, and the rest of his 
paladins. 

When we rode into the open field we could see the 
enemy crowding along the edge of the woods — cavalry 
apparently extending their line around us. We kept 
on advancing towards them to get a nearer view of 
things, and were midway on the Eichmond side be- 
tween the town and a large white house with a hand- 
;some grove around it. In the yard could be seen a 
body of cavalry, in number about our own ; we saw 
no other troops near. Two or three hundred yards 
to the right of the house an officer, apparently of 



58 THE FALLING FLAG. 

rank, with a few men — his staff, probably — riding 
well forward, halted, looking toward the town with 
his glass. Just as he rode out General Gary had 
given the order to charge the party in the yard. 
Some one remarked that it looked like a flag of 
truce. " Charge !" swore Gary in his roughest tones, 
and on we went. The party in the yard were taken 
by surprise ; they had not expected us to charge^ 
them, as they were aware that a parley was going on 
(of which, of course, we knew nothing), and that there 
was a suspension of hostilities. 

We drove them through the yard, taking one or 
two prisoners — one little fellow, who took it very 
good-humoredly ; he had his head tied up, having 
got it broken somewhere on the road, and was riding 
a mule. We followed up their retreat through the 
yard, down a road, through the open woods beyond, 
and were having it, as we thought, all our own way — 
when, stretched along behind the brown oaks, and 
moving with a close and steady tramp, was a long 
line of cavalry, some thousands strong — Custar's 
division — our friends of last night. This altered the 
complexion of things entirely ; the order was instantly 
given to move by the left flank — which, without 
throwing our back to them, changed the forward into 
a retrv^grade movement. 

The enemy kept his line unbroken, pressing slowly 
forward, firing no volley, but dropping shots from a 
line of scattered skirmishers in front was all we got. 
They, of course, knew the condition of things, and 



THE FALLING FLAG. 59^ 

seemed to tlaink we did not. We fell back toward 
a battery of ours that was behind us, supported. I 
think, by a brigade of North Carolina infantry., We 
moved slowly, and the enemy's skirmishers got close^ 
enough for a dash to be made by our acting regi- 
mental adjutant — in place of Lieutenant Capers, 
killed the night before — Lieutenant Haile, who took a 
prisoner, but just as it was done one of our couriers 
— Tribble, Seventh regiment — mounted on a fine 
black horse, bareheaded, dashed between the two 
lines with a handkerchief tied upon a switch, sent by 
General Gordon, announcing the " suspension of hos- 
tilities." 

By this time the enterprising adjutant had in turn 
been made prisoner. As soon as the orders were 
understood everything came to a stand-still, and for a 
while I thought we were going to have, then and 
there, a liltle inside fight on purely personal gTounds. 

An officer — a captain — I presume the captain in. 
command of the party in the yard that we had at- 
tacked and driven back upon the main body— had, 
I rather expect, been laughed at by his own people 
for his prompt and sudden return from the expedition 
he had set out on. 

He rode up at once to General Gary, and with a 
good deal of heat (he had his drawn sabre in his 
hand) wanted to know what he, Gary, meant by 
keeping up the fight after there had been a surren- 
der. " Surrender !" said Gary, " I have heard of no 
surrender. We are South Carolinians, and don't sur- 



60 THE FALLING FLAG. 

render. [All ! General, but we did, tliongli.] Be- 
sides, sir, I take commands from no ofiicers but my 
own, and I do not recognize you or any of your cloth 

as suck" 

The rejoinder was about to be a harsh one, sabres 

were out and trouble was very near, w^hen an officer 

of Greneral Custar's staff — I should like to have gotten 

his name — ^his manner was in striking contrast to that 

of the bellicose captain, who seemed rather to belong 

to the snorting persuasion — he, with the language and 

manner of a thorough gentleman, said, " I assure you, 

General, and I appreciate your feelings in the matter, 

that there has been a suspension of hostilities, pending 

negotiations, and General Lee and General Grant are 

in conference on the matter at this time." 

His manner had its effect on General Gary, who at 
once sheathed his sabre, saying, " Do not sujDpose, sir, 
I have au}^ doubt of the truth of your statement, but 
you must allow that, under such circumstances, I can 
only receive orders from my own officers ; but I am 
perfectly willing to accept your statement and wait 
ior those orders." (Situated as we were, certainly a 
wise conclusion.) Almost on the instant Colonel 
Blackford, of the engineers, rode up, sent by General 
Gordon, with a Federal officer, carrying orders to that 
effect. 

We drew back to the artillery and infantry that 
were just, behind us, and formed our battered frag- 
ments into regiments. 

Desperate as we knew our condition to be since last 



THE FALLING FLAG. 61 

niglit's affair, still tlie idea of a complete surrender, 
which we began now to see was inevitable, came as 
an awful shock. Men came to their officers with 
tears streaming from their eyes, and' asked what it 
:all meant, and would, at that moment, I know, have 
rather died the night before than see the sun rise on 
such a day as this. 

And so the day wore on, and the sun went down, 
«;nd with it the hopes of a people who, with prayers, 
and tears, and blood, had striven to uphold that fall- 
ing flag. 

It was all too true, and our worst fears were fully 
justified by the result. The suspension of hostilities 
was but a prelude to surrender, which was, when it 
€ame to a show of hands, inevitable. 

General Lee's army had been literally pounded to 
pieces after the battle of " Five Forks," aroimd Peters- 
burg, which made the evacuation of Richmond and 
the retreat a necessity. When General Longstreet's 
corps from the north bank joined it, the " army of 
Northern Virginia," wasted and reduced to skeleton 
battalions, was still an army of veteran material, pow- 
erful yet for attack or defence, all the more danger- 
ous from its desperate condition. And General Grant 
so recognized and dealt with it, attacking it, as before 
stated, in detail ; letting it wear itself out by strag- 
gling and the disorganizing effect of a retreat, break- 
ing down of men and material. The 'infantry were 
:almost starved. 

It was not until the fourth day from Richmond, at 



62 THE FAJ.LING FLAG. 

the higli bridge on tlie " Appomattox," the battle of 
Sailor's Creek was fought, in which, with overwhelm- 
ing masses of cavalry, artillery and infantrj^, onr 
starved and tired men were ridden down, and Greneral 
Grrant destroj^ed, in military parlance, the divisions of 
Kershaw, Ewell, Anderson and Custis Lee. 

The fighting next day was of the same desultory 
character as befoie, and the day after there was no- 
blow struck until we encountered with the artillery 
Custar's cavalry, at the depot of Appomattox Court- 
house, as has been described — all their energies being- 
directed toward establishing their " cordon " around 
that point. 

The terms of the surrender, and all about it, are too 
well known to go over in detail here — prisoners of 
war on parole, officers to retain side arms, and all pri- 
vate property to be respected ; that was favorable to 
our cavalr}^, as in the Confederate service the men all 
owned their horses, though different in the United 
States army, the horses belonging to Grovernment. 

General Garj^, true to the doctrine he had laid down 
in his discussion with the irate captain, that " South 
Carolinians did not surrender," turned his horse's head^ 
and, with CajDtain Doby and one or two others, man- 
aged to get that night through the " cordon " drawn 
around us, and succeeded in reaching Charlotte,. 
North Carolina, which became, for a time, the head- 
quarters of the " Southern Confederacy " — the Presi- 
dent and his Cabinet having established themselves- 
there. 



THE FALLING FLAG. 63 

Colonel Haskell, who had been separated from ns 
the night before, while gathering up the horses of the 
brigade, by the charge of cavalry on the turnpike, and 
liad joined and been acting with General Walker and 
Tiis artillery, came in about two o'clock. All the Con- 
federate cavalry at Appomattox, some two thousand 
or twenty-five hundred, were under his command as 
Tanking officer. 

The brigade crossed the road and bivouacked in the 
open field near the creek, within a few hundred yards 
of the town. Our infantry, and what was left of the 
artillery, was scattered along the road for two or three 
miles toward Richmond — the enemy swarming in 
-every direction around us, and occupying the town as 
headquarters. 

The articles of capitulation were signed next morn- 
ing under the famous " apple tree," I suppose ; what 
we saw of it was this : General Lee was seen, dressed 
in full Confederate uniform, with his sword on, riding 
his fine grey charger, and accompanied by General 
Gordon, coming from the village, and riding immedi- 
ately in front of where we were lying. He had not 
been particularly noticed as he had gone toward the 
town, for, though with the regiment, I have no recol- 
lection of his doing so. As soon as he was seen it 
acted like an electric flash upon our men ; they 
sprang to their feet, and, running to the roadside, com- 
menced a wild cheering that roused our troops. As 
far as we could see they came running down the hill 
:sides, and joining in, along the grou.nd, and through 



64 THE FALLING FLAG. 

the woods, and up into tlie sky, there went a tribute 
that has seldom been paid to mortal man. " Faithful^ 
though all was lost !" 

The Federal army officers and men bore them- 
selves toward us as brave men should. I do not 
recollect, within my personal observation, a single 
act that could be called discourteous — ^nor did I hear 
of one. On the other hand, much kindness and con- 
sideration were exhibited when circumstances made it 
warrantable — such as previous acquaintance, as was 
common among the officers of the old army, or a 
return of kindness when parties had been prisoners 
in our hands, as was the case with a portion of the 
Seventh regiment when it was the cavalry battalion 
of the Holcomb Legion, under Colonel Shingier, and 
the Fifth Pennsylvania cavalry. 

Regular rations were issued to men and horses. 
An apology was offered, on one occasion, by the 
Federal Quartermaster, for not ser^dng out horse 
feed, as General F. Lee s division of cavalry, who 
were, as I mentioned before, outside, up in the James 
River direction, had cut off a wagon train that held 
theh provender, so we had to send out a forage detail 
in the neighborhood, with a pass from General Sheri- 
dan, to get through the Federal troops that filled the 
woods for miles around, for their name was legion. 
We stacked eight thousand stands of arms, all told ; 
artillery, cavalry, infantry stragglers, wagon-rats, and 
all the rest, from twelve to fifteen thousand men. 
The United States troops, by their own estimate, 



THE FALLING FLAG. 65 

were 150,000 men, with a railroad connecting their 
rear with Washington, New York, Germany, France^ 
Belgium, Africa, " all the world and the rest of man- 
kind," as General Taylor comprehensively remarked^ 
for their recruiting stations were all over the world^ 
and the crusade against the South, and its peculiar 
manners and civilization, under the pressure of the 
*' almighty American dollar," was as absolute and 
varied in its nationality as was that of " Peter the 
Hermit," under the pressure of religious zeal, upon 
Jerusalem. 

Success had made them good natured. Those we 
came in contact with were soldiers — fighting men — 
and, as is always the case, such appreciate their posi- 
tion and are too proud to bear themselves in any other 
way. They, in the good nature of success, were 
more willing to give than our men, in the soreness of 
defeat, to receive. 

The effect of such conduct upon our men was of 
the best kind; the unexpected consideration shown 
by the officers and men of the United States army 
towards us ; the heartiness with which a Yankee Sbl- 
dier would come up to a Confederate officer and say^ 
"We have been fighting one another for four years ; 
give me a Confederate five dollar bill to remember 
you by," had nothing in it offensive. 

They were proud of their success, and we were not 
ashamed- of our defeat ; and not a man of that grand 
army of one hundred and fifty thousand men but 
could, and I believe would, testify, that, on purely 



^Q THE FALLING FLAG. 

personal grounds, the few worn-out half -starved men 
that gathered around General Lee and his falling flag 
held the prouder position of the two. Had the poh- 
ticians left things alone, such feelings would have re- 
,sulted in a very different condition of things. 

Those of us who took seriou.s consideration of the 
state of affairs, felt that with our defeat we had as 
absolutely lost our country — the one we held under 
the Constitution — as though we had been conquered 
and made a colony of by France or Russia. The 
right of the strongest — the law of the sword — was as 
absolute at "Appomattox" that day as when Brennus, 
the G-au.1, threw it in the scale at the ransom of Rome. 

So far, it was all according to the order of things, 
and we stood on the bare hills men without a country. 
General Grant offered us, it was said, rations and 
transportation — each man to his native State, now 
a conquered province, or to Halifax, Nova Scotia. 
Many would not have hesitated to accept the offer 
for Halifax and rations; but, in distant Southern 
homes were old men, helpless women and children, 
whose cry for help it was not hard to hear. So, in 
good faith, accepting our fate, we took allegiance 
to this, our new country, which is now called the 
"United States," as we would have done to France 
or Russia. 

With all that was around us — the destruction of 
the " Army of Northern Yirginia," and certain defeat 
of the Confederacy as the i-esult — no one dreamed of 
what has followed. The fanaticism that has influ- 



THE FALLING FLAG. bi 

enced the policy of the Government, to treat subject 
States, whose citizens had been permitted to take an 
oath of allegiance, accepted them as such, and prom- 
ised to give them the benefit of laws protecting per- 
son, property and rehgion, as the dominant party in 
the United States has done — exceeds belief. 

To place the government of the States absolutely 
in the hands of its former slaves, and call their "acts" 
" laws ;" to denounce the slightest effort to assert the 
white vote, even under the laws, treason ; and, finally, 
force the unwilling United States soldier to use his 
bayonet to sustain the grossest outrages of law and 
decency against men of his own color and race ! This 
has gone on until, lost in wonder as to what is to come 
next, the southern white man watches events, as a 
tide that is gradually rising and spreading, and from 
which he sees no avenue of escape, and must, unless 
an intervention almost miraculous takes place, soon 
sweep him away. 



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